Nesting In The 21st Century

Chocolate Mug Cake

 

This is a super easy, super delicious recipe for chocolate cake.  It takes just 3 minutes to cook and serves one large serving or two smaller servings.

Chocolate Mug Cake

4 TBLS. flour

4 TBLS. sugar

2 TBLS. cocoa powder

1 egg

3 TBLS.  milk

3 TBLS. oil

3 TBLS. chocolate chips and/or chopped nuts

Mix dry ingredients  in a microwave safe mug. 

Add egg and mix thoroughly. 

Pour in milk and oil, mix. 

Add chocolate chips and/or nuts.

Place mug in microwave and cook for 3 minutes.  The cake will rise over the top of the mug...don't worry!  Allow to cool a bit and either eat out of the mug (for one)  or turn out onto a plate (to serve two).

Chez Fifi

The thing I love the most about the Internet is the ability to find treasure troves of beauty and inspiration.  I particularly love that the Internet allows Artisans a platform for their artistic point of view which is pure and direct.  There is no need to homogenize the vision to apply to the masses...it only need make sense to the author. 

An analogy would be some of  the cooking magazines on the shelves.  The recipes are often woefully unseasoned and conservative.  They are made to appeal to a huge variety of people who live in many different parts of the country and vastly different access to ingredients.  So...it can come off a bit homogenized.  Don't use those habaneros in the jerk chicken recipe...many won't be able to find them...and they might be too hot.  So, jalapenos instead.  The Internet provides a wonderful array of cooking blogs which supply an endless variety of recipes with a very specific point of view.  They don't worry about appealing to everyone.  They appeal to those willing to give the recipe a try.  That Jerk Chicken recipe is from the Simply Recipes blog and is one I am trying this Tuesday by the way!

All of this brings me to today's most wonderful find.  The kind of blog which makes my heart beat faster as I discover an entire new treasure trove of inspiration and purity of vision.  The blog is Chez Fifi.  It is rather new and undeniably fabulous.    I have always been a francophile...toile, champagne, Paris, Pain au Chocolat, Provence...I love it all and this blog is a wonderful connection to that most wonderful place.  Fifi was born in Paris and has transplanted to Florida bringing her style and joie de vivre with her.  I am thrilled to add it to my list of "must reads"...the blogs which I visit daily and become old friends...cyber wise anyway.

This was a super quote on Chez Fifi.  This collage was so beautifully done by  Shawn.   (The Auntie Pea blog is another fun find).

I love the Internet.  It has become my gateway to a galaxy of inspiration and just plain fun.  I don't know how the Jerk Chicken will work out...but what I do know is that we will be trying something spicy and new...and that, ultimately, sure makes life fun....even on a Tuesday night.

Break Over

Whew!  I am in full on Pre-Spring mode.  Funny because it is snowing here...more snow than during Christmas.  Suddenly the whole house looks flat to me.  Time to bump it up...paint some walls, re-arrange some furniture and get rid of the sad and saggy.  Not so much a Spring Cleaning as much as a Spring Overhaul.

The hard part is knowing where to start.  I am thinking that perhaps the family room needs attention first.  New paint, new curtains and the furniture re-arranged...of course it is attached to the kitchen which means it will be done next.

It always amazes me how different the rooms can look when the furniture is re-arranged and accessories are moved from one room to another.  The low cost way to give rooms a new look.   For a bigger change I re-paint.  Even a minor change in paint color can really change the feel of a room.  The hardest part for me is selecting the color.  It takes me forever and a day.  I can choose a car faster than a paint color...doesn't make sense I know but that is how I am.  I have to say it drives the Hubbie beyond crazy.  After all these years he knows to just leave me alone with the paint swatches and stay clear. 

I just love these Paint Colors from Pottery Barn.  I have long  admired the paint colors in the catalog and now they have a guide to the exact paint colors on each page.  I haven't selected any yet but that is my goal for this week...choose the colors and buy the paint.  Break over.

Peppermint Bark

This year I did some little gifts for those oh-so-kind folks who are so nice during the year.  The nice receptionist at the Orthodontists office and the UPS driver who puts up with the constant stream of packages among the seemingly hundreds of others!

I made peppermint bark wrapped in a cellophane bag tied with my favorite Joyeux Noel Midori ribbon.  I added some little red ornaments for fun.  I put the bag inside a star shaped baking dish.  I found them last year at the Crate & Barrel outlet(or was it the year before last?) I gave it with a little red toile Christmas scrapbook.  I think part of the reason I love Christmas so much is it gives me the chance to say a big thank you to everyone who helps me out during the year.

Peppermint bark is my all time favorite quick gift at the holidays.

Melt 1 Lb.  white almond bark in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave.  I break it into squares first.  I start with 30 seconds and keep heating and stirring until it is melted.  Break one package candy canes into pieces.  Reserve some of the candy pieces.  Stir the rest into melted coating. Spread the mixture onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet.  Sprinkle with reserved candy pieces.  Put the pan into the refrigerator to harden.  Once hard break into pieces and store in an airtight container or large zip lock bag.  Enjoy!

Christmas Break

  I took a break from blogging in December.  I needed some time and perspective on the blogging world.  I was starting to think too much about blogging my life instead of living it.  I think it is a rather peculiar thing really.  I seemed to be drifting outside my own life somehow.  I was observing instead of experiencing.  While I do think it is important to gain fresh perspective on life it shouldn't be a constant removal from the ebb and flow.  It was becoming a bit too analytical for me...after all it is my life not a corporation.  It can be hard to resist the temptation to make every project or meal a mini photo session.

I not only took a break from writing the blog but a break from reading blogs as well.  I felt like there was so much input I was having trouble hearing my own voice.   When I began reading my favorites again I was excited to read Autumn's take on all of this...and then Alicia's insight into the same topic.  Reading those posts reminded me how reassuring it can be to blog.  Same topic, different perspectives and insights.

I still wonder how to walk the blogging line as it is. How to balance a desire to share and connect with that of a naturally private person.  If you had asked me two years ago if I would be sharing photos of my life on the Internet I would have thought you were crazy and yet...here I am.  It is new for me.  I am sharing with new friends and strangers and I honestly don't know where the desire to do so has come from.  Part of it could be that I have always been a teacher in some form or another....and maybe this is just another incarnation of that.  But the thing I do know is that when my family and friends ask what I like about the blogging world the first thing which comes to mind is inspiration.  I have been so amazed and inspired by the wonderful, creative bloggers out there, sharing their lives, ideas, recipes, sources and hearts.  It would feel like stealing to take so much joy and inspiration from that  world without participating myself.  Even if that means stretching outside my comfort zone.  Who knows.  Maybe, for me, that is part of the answer why.

Holiday Inspiration

I stumbled on to a wonderful magazine called "Holiday With Matthew Mead" and I am hooked!  Wonderful crafts and recipes and tons of inspiration.   

Perhaps the best part is that his website is chock full of recipes and fun things to download, like wrapping paper and tags. I like to make new types of gifts and decorations each year and it is exciting to find a new source of inspiration!

I first went to the site to download this cool label for a Sour Cream Butter Cake.  This will be a great little gift to make this season. 

Another fun thing....on the site there are archives of past seasons filled with all sorts of fun things.  Enjoy!

Halloween Reinvented

Halloween is almost here.  The kids can't wait.  For Halloween night I am going to make my usual triple batch of chili, a big salad and garlic bread.  People come and go all evening so it all just simmers away in the kitchen waiting to feed the passing goblin.

I usually do a special treat for dessert (not for the kids...they have more than enough sweets!)  I haven't decided what to make this year...I can't decide whether to do a chocolate-toffee trifle or something with pumpkin...a pumpkin cheesecake perhaps.  I better decide soon...time is running out. 

I am learning to do less.  I used to do tons of projects and now I am taking the time to concentrate on just a few.  I do have some things which carry over from year to year (the Halloween Chili dinner for one and caramel popcorn balls for another) but I do like to add something new.  It keeps it fun for me.  I have a not-so-secret fear of life becoming ordinary.  I like routine as much as the next person.  I like to have the security of familiar people and things and wonderful traditions to look forward to.  But I also love the idea that life is fluid and needs re-invention to keep us from taking it for granted.  That is one reason I love travel so much.  Seeing other places helps me to see my own in a new light.  And so I balance new ideas and influences in our holidays with the traditions which our family counts on.  The chili will be the same...but the dessert will be new.  And if everyone loves it and wants it again next year I will just have to find something else to tweak.

Tea Towels and Chess Pie

Here are the wonderful tea towels I received from Denise in the Tea Towel Swap.  I adore the cow one especially and I think Thursday is my new favorite day! 

Check out all the amazing tea towels here. 

Denise also sent two recipes I can't wait to try.  One is for Chess Pie (which I have never made) and another for an Apple Cake which sounds like the perfect dessert on one of these brisk Autumn days.  I love old-fashioned desserts.  Things like banana pudding, coconut cake, homemade chocolate pudding and berry cobbler.  I love the older recipes for them...the kind of recipes you can find in old community cookbooks.  The recipes aren't quite as sweet as some recipes can be today.  Also, they use many types of sweeteners and not just granulated sugar which gives them extra pizzazz.  I collect old community cookbooks and have more than I could ever cook from but I love reading them as others would read a novel...I can't get enough of recipes like  "Mrs. Wilson's Snowflake Cookies" or "Mrs. Smith's Triple Marble Chocolate Fudge".  I especially like it if there is a little something about where the recipe came from or who likes it.  Somehow the fact that Mr. Smith loved that Triple Marble Chocolate Fudge makes me even more eager to try it.   Yep, I can't get enough of those old fashioned desserts.  Thanks for the wonderful swap Denise and thanks also to you Jackie  for putting the whole thing together it was delightful!

Snow and Cupcakes

It is really looking like autumn around here although the weather seems more like winter.  It seemed so strange to see all the pumpkins covered in snow this week.  It was a bit sad as well.  I love autumn and I am not at all ready to give up on cool days, bright leaves and that wonderful warm autumn sunshine which makes everything glow.

I made cupcakes for the kids yesterday.  Nothing special.  The little guy wanted the box he saw in the store along with the matching frosting.  What he really wanted was the 4th of July cupcake mix with matching frosting & sprinkles which were in a sale bin but he finally agreed that the Halloween would do.  I was so bummed about the snow and desperate to return us to autumn that I agreed and within an hour we had our cupcakes.  They were rather flavorless (he could have cared less) and had a strange texture (again, he didn't care).  This was clearly a case of style over substance.  Nevertheless we put them on our Halloween-y black cake plate and on the dining room table.  He couldn't have been more pleased.  Seeing his little face, covered in orange frosting and Halloween sprinkles, certainly returned us to an autumn feeling. Sometimes style is all you need.

Woweee!

How incredibly exciting to receive this most amazing package from Laurie for the Red and Aqua swap.  Delicious.  It was so fun and personal.  The book is divine...it is called "Words In A French Life" and I am halfway through already.  I was actually kind of annoyed that the Pre-School pick up line moved so fast on Monday...I didn't get to read enough.

I am going to knit a dishcloth as Laurie suggested in the cute little card she sent.  I just got the Mason Dixon knitting book and so I have directions!  I have to admit that the chocolate/pretzel candy bar was gone before my mind could even register that I had eaten it.  I was so in love with it that I scooted over to Target to snag some more.  If you haven't tried it I highly recommend the Peanut Butter Pretzel Bar...oh yes...it is even yummier than it sounds and it sounds great. (It is a Choxie brand.)  There are note cards and a little red and aqua bundle of fabric.  Thanks Laurie.  It was so delightful.

I feel kind of back on board again.  I am doing the huge cleaning that I talked about before.  I went to Goodwill once a day all last week and will go again today.   It feels so great to get rid of the excess stuff.  I think I just don't really look at anything anymore.  I keep things because I have always had them instead of really evaluating whether I should keep them around.  Worst of all I don't have space for the things I  love.  I guess I am in the middle of a 10 year clean if there is such a thing.